Western-backed Syrian rebels hemorrhaging on multiple fronts
BEIRUT — During a key battle in the rugged mountains of a northern province earlier this month, U.S.-backed Syrian rebels collapsed before an assault by al-Qaida fighters. Some surrendered their weapons. Others outright defected to the militants.
A detailed account of the battle in Idlib, from a series of interviews with opposition activists by The Associated Press, underscores how the moderate rebels Washington is trying to boost to fight the Islamic State group are instead hemorrhaging on multiple fronts.
They face an escalated assault by Islamic extremists, which activists said are increasingly working together to eliminate them. At the same time, a string of assassinations has targeted some of their most powerful commanders.
Thousands of rebels have died fighting the Islamic State group this year, a war that has overshadowed and undermined the struggle to topple President Bashar Assad. Now the Nusra Front — al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, which previously was also fighting against the Islamic State group — has turned on more moderate factions. Two opposition figures told AP this week that Nusra Front and the Islamic State group have gone so far as to agree to work together against their opponents, though so far their forces have not been seen together on the ground.
Surgeon sick with Ebola arrives in US for treatment
OMAHA, Neb. — A surgeon who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone arrived in Nebraska Saturday for treatment at a biocontainment unit where two other people with the disease have been successfully treated.
Dr. Martin Salia, who was diagnosed with Ebola on Monday, landed at Eppley Airfield in Omaha on Saturday afternoon and was being transported to the Nebraska Medical Center.
The hospital said the medical crew transporting Salia, 44, determined he was stable enough to fly, but that information from the team caring for him in Sierra Leone indicated he was critically ill and “possibly sicker than the first patients successfully treated in the United States.”
The disease has killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leona. Of the 10 people treated for the disease in the U.S., all but one has recovered.
Pitch for health care coverage served up at bars, nail salons as enrollment begins
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The pitch for health care coverage is being made at nail salons, pizzerias, mosques — and even bars.
As the second enrollment period under President Barack Obama’s health care law begins, advocates are employing new tactics and expanding old ones to reach people who need insurance. Some groups are targeting populations they believe slipped through the cracks during the last enrollment period.
“We’ve had great success at laundromats,” said Robin Stockton, the navigator program director for the Center for Family Services, a nonprofit based in Camden, New Jersey.
The informal chat between wash-and-dry cycles can pique interest and lead some customers to call their hotline for more information, she said. “Typically, the question you get back is: ‘Is this that Obamacare thing?’”
Open enrollment started Saturday and runs until Feb. 15. The healthcare.gov website, where people can sign up and search for coverage, appeared to be running smoothly Saturday.
By wire sources